An interesting and fun ragdoll physics diversion, PAIN is a glimpse of one way video games could have progressed in the seventh console generation. It tacks more towards the silly and diversionary arcade-like nature of earlier 3D titles, before shit like Heavy Rain or Uncharted became the norm. Abhorrent injustice barred me from finishing this game; my older brother was kicked out of my house due to some minor psychotic episodes, eclipsing access to his PS3 and thus to PAIN. There's a surprising amount of variety to the body-slingshot action that comprises the bulk of this game, and some more recent indie ragdoll meme titles ought to have looked here for some inspiration on how to make actually enjoyable gameplay.

It's impossible (read: I'm not going to the effort) to find out if I'm remembering this correctly, but the first time I played this, it was already a one-joke game that starts to wear on your patience by using the same trick repeatedly over too many levels. This was (if I remember correctly!) before the in-game President became a store-brand Donald Trump.

Revisiting this after that change is difficult. It's still the same game based on a single gimmick, but the Trump jokes are unbearable because they're so fucking lazy and played out. These are all "orange man bad" level gags, and while I would generally agree with the sentiment behind "orange man bad", it's not going to carry a game - in fact, it's already aging like milk. This isn't even mentioning the weird "gays are gross" elements of the Putin jokes? Come on, man.

You'll probably notice I haven't really mentioned the gameplay much, and that's because it's pretty rudimentary. It was forgettable to begin with due to over-reliance on its gimmick. By adding in references to real-life politics, they've set off that part of my brain that reminds me that politics isn't a joke - real people will live their entire lives in squalor because of decisions politicians have made on their behalf. While that's not to say that politics is a sacred cow nobody should touch, it prompts me to take this game seriously, at which point I realize - the gameplay kinda sucks, the humor really sucks... and why am I doing this to myself?

one respectable trait of sucker punch's manifests through the primacy of play. in contrast to several other analogous high-profile western studios, SP constructs their worlds with an eye for tactile engagement, with the simple joys of robust maneuverability and responsive action superseding any lofty ambitions or claims to prestige. as the studio found themselves ensnared by the demands of seventh generation AAA gaming, it's this innate sense of play that carried them through two largely middling superhero titles - fully formed open worlds, dozens of collectibles leading to upgrades, binary morality designed to feign depth and enhance replayability, and so on are all cornerstones of the infamous franchise, but where other titles may snuff out their sense of play (ironically in service of the age-old game design adage of 'finding the fun') infamous, especially the first title, encouraged it. responsive platforming, scaling intricate vistas, grinding on rails to speed around town instead of relying on vehicles, a litany of 'stunts' that encouraged anarchic combat experimentation, a steady sense of progression against a perfunctory rogues gallery, and even the craven and utterly gamified triteness of its morality system all amounted to a title that, impossibly, added to more than the sum of its parts. any title with a morality system as exploitable as the first games does not demand interrogation but instead derision followed by acceptance - goodness measured by the act of repeatedly maiming and then healing empire citys impoverished denizens. when the narrative amounts to a simple twist, that you're working against yourself, the experience is neatly dovetailed in the most undeserving and undignified way, but one that lends to its charm quite nicely.

these aforementioned elements are what make second son not just disappointing, but staggeringly bad as it suffers not only from franchise fatigue (crushed under the weight of its bullet point list of Systems(tm) and Features(tm)) but from a complete and total lack of care or ambition. combat is a downgrade, progression takes a hit, all powers are not only comparable in their kits but also in the sense that they're designed for visual fidelity rather than in service of play...even leaving aside the utterly abysmal representation of indigenous communities in its writing this is one of the worst narratives of the eighth gen, one that seems to be constantly at odds with its mechanics and presentation. infamous was for better or worse focused entirely on the minutiae of the individual and extrapolating its base of mechanics wholesale to relay a narrative of systemic upheaval is arrogant, naive, and consistently contradictory, which are traits that inform the titles uniformly bad attempts at characterization which hardly seem worth getting into at length. delsin should serve as our lens into this world and he's never once afforded a nuanced or complicated perspective, slotting everything into extremist binaries that seem totally at odds with the concept of his character. the most frustrating element at play here is these same systems could find worth by interpolating SMT's hallmark law/chaos binary if the title had to operate in much the same way which could not only inject new life into the franchise but is in almost every way imaginable more sensible for the narrative on offer here. instead second son is the worst kind of game - creature comforts made to push hardware sales, not daring enough to imagine but instead preferring to con its playerbase into believing its paltry attempts at evolution, perfectly encapsulated by the title being set in sucker punchs hometown of seattle yet making no attempt whatsoever to represent indigenous communities sensibly